Making homemade Greek yogurt is actually quite simple. It’s amazing what just a few simple ingredients and a little bit of time can create. Whole food with live cultures and without any preservatives or unnecessary ingredients! This recipe and tutorial on how to make Greek yogurt uses pasteurized milk.
A regular jug from the store is perfect. Just be sure it isn’t ultra pasturized or homogenized.
I found a great tutorial on YouTube on how to make this yogurt from Sweet Adjeley, you can check it out here.
To make yogurt You need:
A clean pot (I use my enameled cast iron pot)
A Whisk
Wood spoon
1 gallon Whole milk (or your choice of low-fat or 2 percent)
store bought plain Greek yogurt or your own yogurt starter, about 1/2 a cup will do.
full recipe is at the bottom of this post
Directions to make Greek yogurt
On medium high heat, bring 8 cups of milk to a simmer stirring often to prevent milk from scorching on the bottom.
once milk is 180 degrees Fahrenheit, remove from heat and let cool to 108-112 degrees Fahrenheit.
take note the reason for bringing milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit is to kill any bad bacteria that could be present in the milk.
I highly suggest Using an instant read thermometer as it will be more accurate than approximating it. (Though I have made many batches this way, you will get more consistent results with a thermometer)
you can put the pot in an ice water Bath (cold water from the tap is fine) and stir till the yogurt lowers to the desired temperature of 108-112 degrees Fahrenheit. (I have not done this with my enamel cast iron pot, it could crack with extreme temperature changes )
Once yogurt has come down to 108-112 degrees Fahrenheit, pour 1 cup of the warmed milk into a bowl.
Add the yogurt starter to the small bowl and stir well.
pour yogurt starter mixture into the main pot and stir to incorporate.
Cover pot and place it in a warm place like the oven with light on for 8 hrs or over night.
The light on in the oven creates that perfect warm environment for the yogurt to get to work.
After 8 hours or the next day take yogurt out of the oven.
Place a large strainer into a large bowl.
line the strainer with cheesecloth or a lint free kitchen towel (tea towels work great) .
pour yogurt into strainer and let strain until yogurt becomes thicker and at desired consistency.
this will take at least an hour.
you can cover on counter for a few hours or place in the refrigerator to strain.
Once done straining your yogurt is ready to use.
to store, scrape your wonderful yogurt out into a Pyrex dish and place a lid on it. Put Greek yogurt in the refrigerator.
Greek yogurt will store in the fridge for up to a week. Freeze yogurt for longer storage.
be sure to save a 1/2 cup of your fresh yogurt to start your next batch!
once you set aside the starter yogurt feel free to flavor your green yogurt any way you like.
We prefer to sweeten our yogurt with honey.
Scroll down for full recipe card
Homemade Greek yogurt | stovetop
Ingredients
- 8 cups whole milk or your choice of 2% or skim
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or homemade yogurt starter
- (if buying store bought yogurt to start your batch, our favorite is the Aldi brand plain Greek yogurt.makes a nice mild and smooth green yogurt)
Directions
- in a large clean pot, add 8 cups milk
- Heat pot on medium high heat. Bring milk to 180 degrees farenheiht. Stir often
- stir often . Taking care so that the milk doesn’t scorch on the bottom. Once milk starts to steam a lot and bubbles are starting to come up from the bottom it is close to temperature. Check with an instant read thermometer for accuracy.
- once milk is at 180 degrees F take pot off burner. And let milk cool down to 108 -112 degrees Fahrenheit. (This will take a little while, check frequently) if using a regular pot, putting it in a cold water bath will speed up the cooling process
- if doing an ice bath (or cool water bath) fill sink about halfway with cold water from tap place pot of milk in the sink and stir the milk with a wooden spoon until it reaches between 108 degrees and 112 degrees Fahrenheit.
- take about 1 cup of warm milk out of the main pot and mix in with your yogurt or starter. Pour mixture into main pot
- stir to incorporate
- cover pot with lid or lint free towel and put in a warm place (like the oven with the light on)
- leave for 8 hrs or overnight
- if you want a thicker consistency (Greek yogurt) strain off the whey.
to strain off the whey I use a large strainer lined with a tea towel or flour sack towel.
i find the yogurt thickens a bit after being in the fridge. So if it is a bit soupier then you would like try refrigerating it for a day and see if that helps bring it to the right consistency for you! - Before adding anything to sweeten or flavor your yogurt, Always reserve a half cup of yogurt to start your next batch.
- add vanilla, honey, fruit or jam to sweeten and/or flavor your homemade Greek yogurt! The options are endless.
- Store yogurt in the refrigerator. It Keeps for about 1 week in the refrigerator or 3+ months in the freezer
- take a picture and post in the comments and let me know how you liked this little tutorial on how to make yogurt at home!
This post was all about how to make Greek yogurt
if you loved this article, check out this cottage cheese recipe and my other recipes like these BARBECUE GLAZED CHICKEN THIGHS and my go-to Lemon Bar recipe
Tags: green yogurt recipe, homemade dairy, homemade green yogurt, how to make green yogurt
